Bibliographic notes for my 2016 new years reading resolution
“ I RESOLVE TO READ ONE BOOK A WEEK FOR 2016.”
Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life, A Memoir.
“I loved that old high-roofed building. It was warm in
winter and cool in summer, and although it seemed built to last forever, and
the sense of space was unlike anything I knew except the lobbies of movie
houses, the attraction of the Library was not merely shelter. I was there on a
more exciting mission: the discovery of the world.”
Pete Hamill is direct and unabashed as he plows through the
first 37 years of his colorful life; from Brooklyn to Manhattan to Mexico, to
Spain, Ireland, England… He lived his
life looking through a kaleidoscope until confronted by a truth that changed everything.
The book defines the second and third quarter of 20th -century New
York life; tender, harsh and as funny as life can be when you are at the bottom
climbing up without a rope.
Finally, it’s a cookbook for understanding drinking, heavy drinking.
His portrayal of alcoholism, recovery and humanity from a first-person
perspective is not for the squeamish. The writing is rough and communicates a
reality of today often overlooked.
